Incorporating the BHPS

The value of longitudinal household panel studies increases exponentially the more rounds of interviews have been collected. 

In the UK there is already a very successful longitudinal household panel study, which ran for more than 18 years, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) . Understanding Society greatly extends the range of longitudinal analyses that can be carried out given its larger sample size and its in-built design features such as data linkages and inclusion of an ethnic minority boost sample. Given the unique value of both the existing BHPS and the new Understanding Society sample, rather than running two large-scale surveys with a very similar focus and design parallel to each other, the current BHPS sample has been incorporated into the new Understanding Society survey from wave 2 of Understanding Society.

To help with the smooth incorporation of BHPS into Understanding Society a large number of questions which have been asked on the BHPS are also addressed to the new Understanding Society sample. In addition, a number of questions that have been introduced on the Understanding Society survey have already been addressed to BHPS respondents in the 18th round of interviews. From the second round of interviews for Understanding Society which went into the field in 2010 (i.e., the 19th round of interviews for the BHPS sample) the questionnaire is the same for all respondents.